Beyond the Pale: Mistakes
by LordxXxofxXxDorkness
Summary: In which Jay learns the lesson of never confusing a Demon with a Vampire.


Laina squinted at the man in front of her, trying to force her stinging silver gaze to focus on him; the blow to the head must have done more damage then she'd first thought, since he firmly remained a fuzzy blur. But his self satisfied smirk—oh, that she could see. Surging forward in her seat, she snarled curses at him in a dozen mortal tongues, the black mist of her temper leaking from the corners of her blazing, furious eyes.

He didn't even have the courtesy to look startled. Asshole.

One of the men behind her seized hold of her long white braid, and dragged her back into the seat by it. She didn't know why they bothered—the leather straps wrapped around her wrists were more than enough to restrain her, as disoriented as she was. Dark violet blood was caked onto the silken strands of her hair, pasting the whole mess against the left side of her head; she'd gone to investigate a number of disappearances in one of the less favourable neighbourhoods, and been walloped over the head for her troubles. Another sharp tug on her braid (for good measure, no doubt) had her relaxing back in her seat—legs crossed, and hands resting demurely on the arms of the hard wooden chair.

The nameless human man mimicked her pose as he sat behind his desk, smiling charmingly at her. She wondered, hazily, if he was aware that only humans considered the baring of teeth to be an expression of happiness. At the moment he might as well have been an aggressive Alpha, staking a claim on his territory, for the amount of happiness the expression held. Not one to be deterred by such a fickle little thing as common sense, Laina peeled back her lips from her own teeth and hissed casually back at him.

His chuckle was low, and full of surprised amusement. Clearly, he hadn't been expecting that reaction. Laina added a silent tally under her name. Pissing contests were generally left to males—but it he was game, she could ignore her higher maturity, and sink down to his level. Just for a while.

"So," she began, her voice rough with pain and fatigue, "anyone going to tell me what this shitty little meeting is about? Or why I'm the only guest tied to a snecking chair?" Digging her nails into the dull brown painted wood, she leaned forward slightly and fixed her over bright eyes on the nameless man's startlingly blue ones. "Wait—let me guess! I didn't pay my taxes on time. No? Alright, how about a surprise party? No? Damn, thought it'd be that one for sure. I mean, yeah—I'm a kinky, freaky little bitch when I want to be. But this...well, it just isn't my thing."

She snapped her teeth sharply together when he leaned forward and moved as if to speak. "No – shut up, I'm not finished. Whatever the hell you want, little man, the answer is no. Fuck no. Hell no. Everything-thing-under-the-sun No. If you want to use my Guardian Network, sweetie, you and your little friends are just going to have to grab a number, and get in line. Because Laina Silver-Cage doesn't fold under a silly little think like a beating, and she sure as hell doesn't allow mortal men to bully her into doing something." Settling back in her chair, she tipped her head to him, a wolf's grin teasing her lips. "Alright, now it's your turn."

"You're here because you've been chosen to serve this country." He stated simply. Laina hid a shiver as his voice rippled over her like a breaking wave of lazy sunshine, making her want to lie down and stretch out leisurely. He sounded positively _sinful._ "And," he continued, breaking through her thoughts, and dragging her back to reality. She frowned slightly, annoyed at the interruption of her lecherous daydream. "We've decided to over look the trouble you gave us while bringing you in, in favour of utilizing your intriguingly different superhuman abilities. As for your so called 'Network', well we have no use for a Vampire's contact list. Unless, of course, you're offering them up to be slaughtered. Then we'll accept them graciously."

"Wait just a damned minute, Human!" Laina interrupted, aghast and outraged with him. "Did you just call me a dirty blood sucker? Seriously?" She turned her face away, chuckling softly. "Wow. You guys really are the dumbest of the dumb."

"What are you talking about?" He demanded, thumping one fist down hard on his desk, knocking over the cup that held his pens and pencils. "You were there to buy fake I.D from that boy—we saw the appointment you made. Don't bother denying it." He stood suddenly, walking around his desk to tower over her. She assumed he was trying to be menacing; it would be a cold day in hell before that happened.

"I mean," she hissed softly, a duel tone over taking her voice, echoing around the room like thunder, "that you're an assuming fool. I wasn't there to buy an identity from the boy—I was there to investigate what was happening to his clients. Think for a moment; when was the last time you came across a vampire with snow white hair, caramel skin, and silver eyes? You've been hunting them. You know they don't draw attention to themselves like that. They also don't bleed purple, and have duel hearts—but you _are_ human, and exceedingly stupid, so I can see how you'd miss that part. Come on, man—think!"

He rested his hands on the back of the chair, lowering himself into her personal space slowly, glowering the entire time. At one point, she was convinced she saw a blue spark shoot off from his eyes, his gaze was that intense. "What," he asked lowly, pronouncing each word carefully, "_exactly_ are you saying?"

She cocked her head to the side, molten mercury gaze wide and innocent. "I'm saying that you can't tell the difference between a Vampire and a Demon, Hunny. A mistake like that can get you killed."

He straightened up, looking relieved. Obviously, he assumed her quite mad. "Demons don't exist. Everyone knows that."

"I really must meet this Everyone someday. They know so much—yet all of it is wrong!" she tsked at him softly, a strange look over taking her face. The inhumanness of it made him flinch back, suddenly uncertain. The straps would hold her, just like they had everyone else...right?

Many things happened in the next five seconds; firstly, smooth ebony coloured spines erupted through the leather straps securing her dainty wrists to the arms of her chair, seemingly springing from nowhere, while her now freed hands fisted themselves in the front of his shirt. Next, she managed to toss the six foot three wall of muscled male right back over his desk, and back into his chair. Belatedly, she realised she'd put too much strength into the blow; the back legs of the urban monstrosity snapped cleanly in two, depositing the stunned man onto the carpet below. She was on him again in the next instant, one booted heel firmly holding him in place on the ground. She focused much of the force through the toes, not wanting to punch a hole in his gut with her bladed heel tip.

Across the room, one of the guards was on the floor, holding a wrist that was suddenly sans a hand, and screaming in agony. A dagger was buried in the wall next to him, his hand hanging under it by the smallest flap of skin. "You shouldn't have pulled my hair." She informed him calmly, dark clouds of black mist veiling her eyes. In her opinion, he'd gotten off lightly; had she more time, she would have gutted him slowly, instead of merely removing an appendage.

"Now then, down to business." Turning her suddenly blank face to towards her nameless kidnapper, she pursed her lips in thought. "Tell me your name, mortal man—and I promise not to reproduce your friend's fate over there onto your edible looking person." Electricity crackled across her skin as she spoke, jumping and leaping eagerly into the air around her. Some smaller violet bolts danced down her leg, and across her heels, to sink into his tender skin. She felt him draw in a sharp breath as the bolt burned him, and tried to ignore the smell of burning toast. Alright, so maybe her aim was a bit too low—but she wasn't planning on being nice to the man. He might not have touched her, but he'd organized the entire thing.

"J-jay..." He gasped, hands grabbing at her ankle in an attempt to move her foot, and stop the short, hard shocks from reaching him."My name is Jay!" Shifting her weight, she leaned more onto him, bracing her hands against her raised knee. Her head titled slightly as she watched him pant and squirm on the floor, her long white braid swinging ideally in the air between them. He wasn't an unattractive man, all in all. Might have even been her type, if he hadn't been human and assumed she was a blood thirsty leech.

"Nice to meet you Jay. I'm Laina, the woman you kidnapped and accused of being a filthy thoughtless beast. I am, in fact, none of those things. I'm also the woman who just happens to be in control of one of the largest, longest lasting supernatural police forces this side of the galaxy. And guess what? You've royally pissed me off." Removing her boot, she bent down and hauled Jay to his feet by his plain blue pin striped tie, turning to toss him down onto the desk—heedless of the mess it caused. "I'm also going to be a forgiving Doll, and help a chap out; since I know just how far over your head you are- even if you yourself aren't willing to accept that tiny, ridiculous, unacceptable fact."

Her sharp nails made quick work of his buttoned shirt as she purred her words down at him, one slender hand smoothing over the exposed skin of his chest. She left his shirt collar buttoned, and his tie done up; she'd need something to haul him around by, after all. "Now I'm going to ask you a series of questions, Lovely. I need you to answer them honestly. Anything less than honest will be dealt with punishment. Understand." It wasn't a question; she really didn't care if he did or not. She was still going to hurt him, either way.

"You're crazy!"

"Why, yes- I am! But this isn't about me, Love. What is the objective of this unit that you run?"

"We monitor the comings and goings of Vampires, alright! I swear that's all we do! "

"Wrong. I told you not to lie to me, Jay." Her hand tightened on his chest, her long violet nails biting savagely into his skin. Mercilessly, she pressed her power through the wounds, feeling her strange black electricity sing through his veins. It wasn't enough to kill him; it would, however, burn like a bitch until he told her the truth.

Laina watched as his back arched off of the desk, his mouth falling open in a silent scream as his hands clawed at the wood beneath him. Dispassionate eyes narrowed in concentration as she carefully calculated how much strain his body could withstand before it failed him. Slowly counting down from ten in her head, she withdrew her claw like nails from his heaving chest when she reached the end of the count. "Now I know it hurts, and all your muscles are seized up and screaming at you—but it'll pass. Just force the truth out through those flat white, uselessly teeth of yours, and there won't be any need for any more pain."

Leaning down, she stroked her bloody fingers across his naked flesh, moving in soothing circles. He jerked uncontrollably beneath her touch, lips peeled back from his teeth in a silent, agonizing snarl. She felt no pity for him; this was nothing, compared to what he'd done to her charges. Though most of them had been reduced to piles of ash when she found them, one poor unlucky soul had still been alive, just clinging to wakefulness beneath a clear predawn sky. She'd whisked him away without thought of what the humans of the city would think; a woman, clearly distrait, carrying a bloody man nearly twice her size, seemingly without effort? She'd been exceedingly lucky, that day. The only humans around had been the homeless who'd come to see her as their Guardian Angel.

They would never breathe a word of what they'd seen.

Lestet had been called in, Rachel at his side; to treat the injuries she hadn't known how to deal with. The injured Vampyre had been on a plane to Vancouver that same evening, watched over by the Guardians who protected that City. She'd received a phone call the next day informing her of the man's condition. Though weak, and too terrified to leave the building, he was recovering well. His body, at least. They made no promises for his mind.

"We use them to hunt terrorists." The full body quakes had dissipated, leaving behind only the occasional small spasm. Despite everything, though, his voice was surprisingly calm. Swallowing thickly, his gaze fixed stubbornly on the ceiling, he continued. "The process we use to find them isn't pleasant; there are a surprisingly few amount of cowardly vampires in this city. For ever hundred we kill, only one among them is afraid of the threat of dying, burned alive by the sun."

"Go on." She whispered, her face a mask of stone. Above them, the lights flickered.

He licked his dry lips quickly, grimacing at the taste of his own blood. She's split his lip, when she'd hurled him into his chair. "Out of all of those hundreds, we've only managed to find three. They're all young, in your years , not human. The Texan said she was only seventy four. Don't know about the man—he refused to tell; he's probably under a hundred as well. The last woman, though...she's got a few centuries behind her, at least. Ballsy too." Laina's hands had stilled their slow movement, making him tense up once again. Was she going to hurt him more?

"I didn't want to head this task force." He blurted out, his breath hitching as his pulse raced with fear. "They told me they were all killers, that they'd murdered innocent people to stay alive for another day. I couldn't stand the thought of them being out there on the street, slaughtering the people I've vowed to protect. I...I just couldn't allow it to go on." He finished weakly. His panicked confession left him staring up at her, ice blue eyes delving deep into her twisting mercury gaze. He saw understanding there, and unwilling forgiveness. He wasn't the only one who'd vowed to keep his people safe.

Removing her hand, Laina backed up a pace—giving him room to sit up. "I believe you, Jay. I even understand where you're coming from. But I can't forgive you for what you've done. Not yet. Some of those vampyres were good people—many of them looked out for the community they lived in, protected them from harm. Now I'm not saying all of them did that—because they didn't—and I'm also not saying that they were all outstanding citizens." She shrugged slender shoulders, her hands finding their way to her hips. Her bloody nails left streaks of blood on the pristine purple of her long linen tunic, poppy red against the complex pattern woven into it. "But I promised I'd keep them safe, and you and your team have gone and killed them. You've made me into a liar, Jay."

"I didn't kill them, the Enforcers did." He argued back, dark brows furrowed in anger.

"Doesn't matter—you're just as responsible for their deaths." She snapped back, one purple painted lip curling in disgust.

"But—"

"_Shut it._ They're dead, and it's basically your fault. Accept the facts as they are, and move on. We have more important things to talk about." Striding back across the room, she rummaged through the pockets of her large coat—the one they'd stripped her of right before they'd strapped her to the chair—and pulled out a small note book and a pen. Even in the modern age of electronics, she was forced to rely on the ancient methods of note taking; her electrical abilities fried anything bigger then a pocket watch. It was a bother, but she'd grown used to it.

When she came back to the desk, jay was sitting up, his hands gingerly probing the wounds she'd given him. "Ever hear of a nail file?" he grunted irritably, wincing as one puncture wound started to bleed again. She ignored him with the same effortless ease that she ignored Vre with, and flipped open her book to a blank page. Licking the tip of the pen, she placed it on the first line of the page and barked out a single word order.

"Explain." It was the same tone a police captain would use on any officer in trouble. Jerking forward in surprise, he almost couldn't stop himself from snapping to attention.

"We've been searching for ways to prevent future attacks like the several that happened on Nine Eleven." He stated quickly, face flushed with embarrassment. His eyes stayed locked on the floor, his belly churning uncomfortably. It was ludicrous, the entire idea of using supernatural forces to stop the terror of humanity. He hadn't even believed it himself, the first time he'd been briefed on his new assignment. But then again, she was the one who claimed to be a demon, and be avenging blood suckers—the idea could seem more then reasonable to her.

"And you found your solution in Vampyres?" She questioned drily, a look of bemusement on her face. Jay only flushed deeper and nodded.

"The government's been monitoring some of them for a century, now. I don't know how they managed to follow them, or how they even found them in the first place—I'm sorry I don't know, but that's above my pay grade. Over the last twenty years, they realized many of their subjects had been going to the same place periodically. It was a little run down apartment building, tucked into a bad area here in the City. Run by this strange, squat bearded guy. That kid—what was his name again?" He snapped his fingers idly, trying to jog his memory.

"George." Laina offered lightly, pen dancing across the page of her book.

"Mhm. Him; he's been making false for them for years now, giving them whole new lives every ten years. He's good—we're thinking about hiring him, actually. I couldn't tell his stuff from the legit . I swear he can't be over twenty five, but he's been running that operation for nearly two decades now." Laina glanced up from her page as he diverted from his explanation, smirking at the puzzled look on his face.

"He's an Immortal." She explained, deciding to help him out. There really wasn't any use keeping him in the dark anyway, seeing as how he'd just been unwillingly drafted into her underground world of the Supernatural. She nodded a confirmation when he glanced up at her, disbelieving. "I cross my hearts, it's the Gods given truth." Dragging the hand with her pencil up, she sketched a cross over both sides of her chest. " He's a kobold; nasty little buggers, you really want to stay away from them. Their favourite meal? Nosy humans."

His look of utter revulsion made her laugh. "Don't worry; Guardians monitor them closely. Any Kobold living in a city stays on a strictly vegetable only diet. George hasn't eaten anything with legs in over two centuries. Consider him the Hippy of Immortal Society, if you want. He's completely harmless. You were telling me about how you caught the Vampyres...?" Her prompt wasn't subtle.

"Oh. Um, right." Clearing his throat nervously, he continued. "We watched the place for weeks, sending agents to follow every single person that came to see him. The ones who weren't vampires were left alone; too many of them for us to charge, anyway. The others, though, were taken into custody as soon as we were certain of them. The first few dozen times usually wound up with agents badly injured, and the vampire dead. We were forced to seek out assistance from those more..._practiced_ in the art of Vampire capture and torture, after that. That was about six months ago." Shrugging again, he ran his hand nervously over his short brown hair, darting a look at her— trying to judge her reaction. "You know the rest." He finished quietly.

Black mist twisted in the air around her, billowing almost lazily from the corners of her eyes. Her silver orbs were filled with storms, the bright grey twisting around flashes of anger and sorrow. Her hand still worked over the page, jotting down his words, though he could tell her mind wasn't focused on the task. "How many have you killed since the Enforcers took over?"

The question lifted the small hairs on the back of his neck, the chill in her voice raising goose bumps across his exposed flesh. He felt sweat break out over his skin as his pupils dilated in fear, the air around him suddenly felt heavy and thick; hard for him to breath. His tongue darted out; moistening his lips as he mentally tallied the numbers. "Three hundred, not counting the twenty four killed in the first weeks."

A low whine filled the room as the lights above them began to flicker faster. The first bulb shattered, raining down glass on the unconscious body guard near the door. Jay took in the sight of the large pool of blood, and wrote him off as dead. The other guard lay across from him, crumpled on the carpet in a very uncomfortable position. He'd pissed himself in fear. There would be therapy in his future, for many years to come. But at least he was still alive.

That was more than Jay was willing to bet on himself. Laina was advancing on him slowly, each foot taking long, deliberate steps. Blue eyes focused first on her flat tipped, bladed stiletto boots, then to the bloody mess of her nails; his blood, he reminded himself, from where she'd torn into his chest as though his flesh had been paper. Finally his gaze settled on the ebony spines, no more than an inch across and three inches long, sprouting almost delicately from her thin, feminine wrists. They were such a deep shade of black, that they reflected no light—instead seeming to suck it up greedily.

Breathing in short, sharp puffs, he backed up quickly. His hips struck the solid wood of his desk, and he cursed silently, skittering around it. The window was next, its large cool pane like burning ice across his flushed skin. There wasn't any where for him to run; the only door was across the room, directly behind the terrifying creature stalking him. Pressing his palms flat against the glass, he straightened his back and lifted his chin, bracing himself for what would, without a doubt, be his painful end. If he was to die, then he'd damn well do it with dignity.

Laina reached him a moment later, her last step bringing her within his personal space. She leaned into him, one hand skimming his left hip as the other planted itself by the side of his head—caging him in place. Her head ducked down, breath ghosting over his lips as she locked her churning, furious gaze on his. With her heels on, they were almost the same height.

He'd never found a woman so intimidating in his life. He doubted any other would ever come close.

"You give me the Enforcers, and I will consider the deaths of my people avenged." Turning her face, her lips skimmed over the line of his jaw, burning a trail to his ear. She hissed her words softly, angrily, into it. "I will slaughter them in front of the survivor of your torturers tonight, and we will put the past behind us and work together to rid this City of the filth that hide within it." He fought the urge to duck his head and hide his neck as her long hair tickled at his skin; half certain she would drop down and rip out his throat with only her teeth.

"Bid them come to meet you at Sanctuary Way and Middle Crossing, at Eight O'clock tonight." She pulled away after one last click of teeth, her fingers trailing down his chest, resting just over the wounds. He read her threat loud and clear; if he told anyone, she would kill him. Nodding his understanding, he watched from his place on the window as she crossed the room and put on her coat, turning to leave. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, she paused in the thresh-hold of the door, and half turned to look at him over her shoulder. A smile, so radiant and pure in its appearence, washed over her face. "And Jay? Don't be late."

It was the most frightening thing he'd ever seen. Numb with shock, he slid slowly down to the ground as the door clicked shut, his heart hammering like a jack rabbit.


End file.
